Right now with the government shut down, the SEC and CFTC are not doing anything unfortunately, including approval of Bakkt. Will take some more time but I don't foresee any regulatory roadblocks for Ripple. Everything I have read seems to point to them having done an outstanding job engaging with regulators and going about the process in a thoughtful and strategic way.

Why’s that? You think it’d be viewed as a dividend? Would need to weigh that versus decentralization bc we’re already at risk of being deemed a security. If Ripple doesn’t control majority of coins they’re much better off. I was just noodling, haven’t researched the securities issue much yet and am not an expert in securities law. My focus is on technology and commercial transactions.

Decentralization is of upmost importance given the dialogue in Congress this past week. Technical decentralization with additional public validators is one thing but Ripple owning 60% of XRP is more concerning to me because it is an easier issue for the idiots in Congress to comprehend. Perhaps an airdrop to current hodlers until Ripple's position is 49% might be a way to address it but with their position escrowed it would need to be part of a long term plan with any portion not sold to partners being sent to hodlers. If Ripple announced something like this it'd certainly drive near term liquidity and if it put the XRP is a security debate to rest it may sustain that growth for the long term.
https://coincenter.org/link/sec-chairman-clayton-bitcoin-is-not-a-security
"Congressman Emmer stands up for cryptocurrency innovation and gets important regulatory clarification from the SEC.
In today’s hearing, Congressman Emmer (R-MN) had an excellent line of questioning for the Director of the SEC’s Division of Corporation Finance, William Hinman, on the subject of open blockchain tokens and regulation.
Hinman responded that the initial sale of a token is difficult to have without it being security issuance. But he also said that “it is certainly possible that there are tokens that would not have the hallmarks of a security.” He went on to specify what a token that doesn’t have those hallmarks might look like: “a token where the holder is buying it for its utility rather than investment, especially if it's a decentralized network in which it’s used with no central actors.”"

So your CPA didn’t determine tax liability for each individual trade? Are you saying he only looked at the $ you put into crypto (as your basis) and then the $ you withdrew from crypto with the difference being your gain? And then depending upon how long you held applied the applicable cap gains rate? That would certainly make things easier as I’ve never withdrawn anything. I was planning on reporting each time I bought BTC (my basis) and then each subsequent trade from BTC to XRP with the difference in price being my gain or loss for each applicable trade.